CCU women’s basketball adds assistant, Hansen named conference POY

Coastal Carolina head women’s basketball coach Jaida Williams has a new assistant in Vanessa Taylor, who has spent the past five seasons as the head coach at North Carolina Central.

Taylor boasts 23 years of women’s basketball head coaching experience, and Williams cited Taylor’s character, knowledge of defense and winning history in the hire.

Taylor went just 33-113 at N.C. Central, including 8-21 last season. During her time at the Fayetteville school, Taylor coached guard Morgan Jones, who reached 1,000 career points as a senior in 2016-17, and also guided Racquel Davis, Tisha Dixon and Amber Neely to All-Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference honors.

Prior to her stint at N.C. Central, Taylor spent 11 seasons as the head coach at Johnson C. Smith University where she finished with a 215-112 (.657) overall record. In 2010-11, Taylor led the Golden Bulls to a school-best 26-5 overall record and was voted the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Coach of the Year for a third time.

Taylor also captured the CIAA tournament championship in 2008-09, and CIAA Western Division championship in 2005-06. The Golden Bulls reached the NCAA Division II tournament five times under Taylor.

Taylor previously coached at Elizabeth City State University from 1994-2001, twice being named the CIAA coach of the year.

Hansen named Golfer of the Year

Coastal Carolina University junior Malene Krolboll Hansen has been named the Sun Belt Conference Women’s Golfer of the Year, which was determined through a vote by the league’s head coaches.

The Denmark native began her CCU career as the 2015 Big South Freshman of the Year and was named to the All-Big South First Team and All-Big South Tournament Team as both a freshman and sophomore.

Hansen received several Sun Belt Golfer of the Week honors this season after the Chanticleers changed conferences, and was named to the 2017 All-Sun Belt Conference First Team as well as the Sun Belt Conference All-Tournament team.

Hansen had what can be considered the best season in the history of the CCU women’s golf program, registering a program-record stroke average of around 72.4 and recording four top-five finishes on the season, including a win at the Golfweek Conference Challenge where she shot a program-record 9-under 207. She had 17 rounds of par or better in 2016-17.

This story was originally published May 18, 2017 at 9:24 PM with the headline "CCU women’s basketball adds assistant, Hansen named conference POY."